Conspiracy Movies List

Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 4:33 pm

If you ever decide to make your own conspiracy movies list, you may be surprised by how many films of the genre actually exist. Conspiracy movies were especially popular in the ‘70s, no doubt spurred on by the public’s interest in what went down with the disgraced President Richard Nixon. They continue to endure, however, and new conspiracy movies are hitting theaters all the time. If you’re looking for a few ideas, here are ten you may want to check out.

And if you use Netflix or Blockbuster Online, you can have any of these conspiracy films delivered right to your mailbox (with pre-paid postage). Once you’re done, slip it right back where it came from, and another one will arrive just like magic.

2. The Insider (1999) – It’s not one of the new conspiracy films, but it is more recent than the other movies on this list. Russell Crowe plays real-life whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco executive who participated in a story by 60 Minutes about Big Tobacco and their knowledge of the addictive nature of cigarettes. Al Pacino and Christopher Plummer also star.

3. Wag the Dog (1997) – When a sex scandal threatens to destroy a candidate days before the presidential election, a group of specialists are brought in to invent a fake war which will distract the public. Theme songs are written (including one by Willie Nelson), fake footage of the war is shot, and ready-made heroes are even created. Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman star in this black comedy/conspiracy film.

4. Capricorn One (1978) – A group of astronauts (James Brolin, Sam Waterston and O.J. Simpson) are supposed to undertake a mission to Mars, but a faulty life support system makes this impossible. Instead, the mission is faked, and the stunned astronauts slowly begin to realize that they aren’t meant to make it out alive. Meanwhile, a journalist (Elliott Gould) begins to investigate strange reports surrounding the launch. This conspiracy film of the 70s also stars Telly Savalas, Hal Holbrook and Karen Black.

5. The Omen (1976) – Gregory Peck and Lee Remick star as an American couple living in England. When their baby is stilborn, the child is switched with the father’s permission. Little does he know that their new “son” is actually the child of Satan. Two sequels and a remake would follow for this conspiracy film of the 70s.

6. Marathon Man (1974) – The most popular of the conspiracy films of the 70s, Marathon Man stars Dustin Hoffman as a young man caught up in the middle of a plot involving elderly Nazis (Laurence Olivier) and the CIA. The most famous scene comes when Hoffman’s character is interrogated and tortured by Olivier, an ex-dentist who drills into his tooth and keeps asking, “Is it safe?”

7. They Live (1988) – Former wrestler Roddy Piper stars in this action-tinged thriller about an alien conspiracy to control and misdirect the human race. Able to see though their disguises with a special pair of glasses, Piper wages a personal war to regain control of his planet. Keith David co-stars, and the duo engage is a hard-hitting back-alley brawl which seemingly goes on forever. John Carpenter directed this picture, one of the great conspiracy movies of the 80s.

8. The Conversation (1974) – A paranoid surveillance expert (Gene Hackman) frets over the likely results of his latest job. If he hands the recorded conversations over to his employer, he worries that a young couple may be killed. Of course, nothing is as it initially seems in this Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece.

9. Soylent Green (1973) – Charleton Heston plays a cop investigating a murder. While it seems simple enough at first, he begins to realize that he’s caught up in something much larger and more deadly. The film’s ending brings a shocking conclusion, and Heston utters one of the most famous lines in movie history.

10. All the President’s Men (1976) – Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford star as Bernstein and Woodward, the Washington Post journalists who exposed the Watergate break-in (which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon). Nominated for eight Academy Awards.

Thanks to this conspiracy movies list, you should now have a healthy distrust for the government. If so, why not stick it to “the man” a little more by reading the following articles (so Big Brother can read along with you):